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A brief timeline of N.C. driver's license ID requirements:

Oct. 1, 1997: The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles begins asking applicants for a Social Security number under a law aimed at cracking down on deadbeat parents. Applicants without an SSN, including illegal immigrants, are not turned away, however.

August 1998: Under an internal policy, the DMV begins accepting the matricula consular, the servicio militar nacional and the credencial para votar, three forms of identification issued by the Mexican government.

Jan. 1, 2002: The DMV begins accepting the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a federal ID number issued to all workers in the U.S. regardless of immigration status, as a form of identification under a provision in the state budget.

Feb. 2, 2004: Under an internal policy change pushed by Operation Stop Fraud, the DMV stops accepting the matricula consular and other foreign-issued papers as a form of identification. The matricula consular is still accepted as proof of residency, however.

Aug. 23, 2006: The DMV stops accepting taxpayer ID numbers under a provision in an omnibus technical corrections bill.

SOURCE: Division of Motor Vehicles

State driver's licenses have been restricted in the past decade.

In the late 1990s, a group of officials in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration worked with Latino leaders to address the problem of illegal immigrants driving on state roads.

Their solution was to expand the ways that the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles could determine residency, including accepting utility bills and lease agreements. The goal was to get immigrants to drive legally and get car insurance.

After the 9/11 attacks, concerns about security led lawmakers to turn instead to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is issued to anyone working in the U.S. regardless of immigration status.

Though that added a new hoop for some illegal immigrants to get a license, it did not make it impossible. Over the following three years, the DMV issued about 179,000 licenses to people who only had taxpayer ID numbers.

In 2004, the DMV went a step further. Facing concerns about fraud and identity theft, it stopped accepting the matricula consular, a form of identification issued by the Mexican government, among other foreign documents.

And in 2006, legislators ordered the agency to stop accepting taxpayer ID numbers, making it impossible for illegal immigrants to get a state driver's license. However, they stopped short of ordering a recall of older licenses issued with the numbers.

When those licenses expire, drivers will not be able to renew them.

Four bills to toughen driver's license requirements failed in 2003.

Dome is digging into recent immigration bills because the issue has come up in the U.S. Senate campaign of state Sen. Kay Hagan.

As noted previously, Hagan voted for a 2006 measure to require a valid Social Security number to obtain a North Carolina driver's license, making it impossible for illegal immigrants to get an ID.

Prior to that vote, four similar bills were killed in committee by the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate. None came up for a vote on the Senate floor, and Dome could not find any interviews with Hagan on the issue from that year.

At the time, North Carolinians could get a driver's license with a individual taxpayer identification number, which is available to illegal immigrants, or a matricula consular, a form of identification issued by the Mexican consulate.

A Senate bill and two House bills would have required a valid Social Security number or an alien registration number for a driver's license. They would have also eliminated the acceptance of the matricula consular. (The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles stopped accepting matriculas in February of 2004 anyway.)

Another Senate bill would have required driver's licenses expire at the same time as alien registrations.